For Stratocore, community engagement is an important part of the PPMS experience.

Each month, we host a focus group or webinar, alongside regular user group meetings, training resources, on-demand personal training sessions and 24/7 support. Together, these give the PPMS user community opportunities to learn from peers, build their knowledge and discover new ways to use the platform and manage their core facilities.

Shared experience, practical value

No two research environments use PPMS in exactly the same way.

A university-wide research infrastructure programme will have different priorities from an individual core facility. A microscopy facility may operate very differently from a flow cytometry core, while reporting, finance, equipment and user management needs can also vary significantly.

That variety is what makes sharing experiences so valuable.

By bringing users together, we help organisations compare approaches, learn from real-world examples and discover ideas they can apply in their own environments. These conversations also give Stratocore valuable insight into how PPMS is being used and how client needs are evolving.

Focus groups: learning from other PPMS users

Our PPMS Focus Groups put peer-to-peer learning at the centre.

Speakers share how they are using PPMS in their own organisations, the challenges they have faced and the approaches that have worked for them. Topics range from reporting and data-driven decision-making to asset management, financial processes and day-to-day facility operations.

Recent sessions have included:

• Metrics Made Manageable: Using PPMS to Turn Activity into Insight – Tim Bushnell, University of Rochester Medical Center

• Beyond Asset Management: How the Stratocore Catalogue Delivers Value at the University of Birmingham – Adriana Flores-Langarica, University of Birmingham

• How TRI Uses PPMS and Power BI to Win Arguments and Influence People – Emily Duggan and Tess Vogts, Translational Research Institute

• Two Cores, One Joint User Base: PPMS for Light and Electron Microscopy Facilities Across MPIBR and MPIBP – Sonja Welsch and Stephan Junek, Max Planck Institute

• Using PPMS to Bring Science Back to the Core – Juan J. Garcia Vallejo, Amsterdam UMC

The real benefit comes from seeing how other facilities work, asking questions and taking away ideas that can be adapted to your own environment.

User group meetings: connecting in person

Our PPMS User Group Meetings bring the community together face to face.

Held regularly, usually alongside major conferences, they typically feature three or four presentations from PPMS users sharing their experiences, projects and approaches.

Attendees also get a preview of what is coming next for PPMS from Mathieu Marchand, Stratocore Co-founder, President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), who leads the platform’s technical roadmap and product innovation.

Combining peer presentations, roadmap insights and informal discussion, these meetings give users the chance to exchange ideas, ask questions and build connections with colleagues from other institutions.

Recent User Group Meetings have taken place during ABRF and CTLS conferences in the US and Europe, with presentations from PPMS users at organisations including the University of Louisville, The Rockefeller University, UCLA, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Institut Pasteur, WEHI and EPFL.

Webinars and training: practical PPMS guidance

Alongside our peer-led events, webinars offer more structured guidance from the Stratocore team, covering PPMS functionality, new developments and practical ways to use the platform.

Recent topics have included Publication Discovery & Reporting, the latest PPMS software release and Automated Billing, Invoicing and Financial Integration.

A growing library of recorded webinars means the value continues beyond the live session. Users can revisit them as reference material, refresh their knowledge or share relevant guidance with colleagues.

Dedicated training videos also provide practical 20–30 minute walkthroughs of key PPMS modules, including:

• Booking Management

• Incident Management

• Orders Management

• Project Management

• Training Management

Together, these resources provide a practical knowledge base for day-to-day reference, refresher training and onboarding new team members.

Stay connected

Want to learn more about PPMS? Get in touch with our team or visit our Events page to see where you can connect with Stratocore at upcoming conferences, meetings and industry events. 

Want to hear about upcoming sessions? PPMS users can enable Webinar notifications in their PPMS user profile to receive invitations to future focus groups and webinars.

If you have colleagues who are also PPMS users, encourage them to enable notifications too.

Previous focus groups and webinars, along with dedicated PPMS training videos, are also available for PPMS users to watch on the Help Desk as an ongoing resource for revisiting topics, refreshing knowledge and supporting team training.